Pietro Fabris

Private collection, Monaco;

Anonymous sale (‘Property from a Deceased’s Estate’), London, Sotheby’s, 6 July 2000, lot 237, for £289,500;

Where acquired by Giacomo Algranti on behalf of Sir Peter Moores (1932–2016), Parbold Hall, Lancashire;

By whom sold (‘The Property of Sir Peter Moores, CBE DL, removed from Parbold Hall’), London, Sotheby’s, 3 July 2013, lot 37;

Acquired subsequently by the present owner.

This magnificent view of Mergellina ranks among Pietro Fabris's largest and most ambitious canvases, capturing the quintessence of Neapolitan everyday life. Dated to the artist’s maturity, it exemplifies his talent for blending the colourful aspects of daily life with his careful approach to the topographically accurate description of landscape. The date 1777 suggests it may have been conceived as a pendant to a work of near identical dimensions depicting peasants merry-making on the shore at Posillipo, signed and also dated 1777, at Compton Verney Art Gallery, Warwickshire.¹

Set against the imposing shell of the Baroque Palazzo Donn’Anna, Fabris orchestrates a vibrant panorama of daily life along the Mergellina shore. The foreground of the composition is populated with a microcosm of Neapolitan society from all walks of life: fishermen haul in baskets brimming with the morning’s catch; peasants lounge in animated conversation or bend over a spirited game of cards; while elegantly dressed figures stroll down the shore, taking in the sea air. At the far right, beneath a rocky outcrop, a gentleman wearing a tricorn hat gestures towards a crouching vendor and his young assistant, who tend to fish sizzling over an open flame—perhaps the food for the visitor’s own companions gathered in the middle distance. On the water, a small rowing boat ferries another party of fashionably attired figures towards the shore, ready to join the convivial bustle. Fabris’s meticulous rendering of each character speaks to his abiding fascination with the costumes and customs of Naples and its surrounding region, which he had recorded in his celebrated Raccolta di varii vestimenti ed arti del Regno di Napoli from 1773, dedicated to his patron Sir William Hamilton (1730–1803).

Despite the significant role Pietro Fabris played in the development of eighteenth-century Neapolitan landscape painting, very little is known about his early life. Although his work focused so closely on capturing Neapolitan everyday life, Fabris describes himself as 'Inglese' in the dedication to his aforementioned Raccolta and is similarly referred to in the introduction to Sir William Hamilton's, Campi Phlaegrei, the celebrated study of volcanoes which Fabris illustrated.² Further circumstantial evidence pointing to his possible English origins lies in his sustained links with London, where he exhibited at the Free Society of Artists in 1768 and the Society of Artists in 1772. Nevertheless, his surviving œuvre is entirely Neapolitan, both in subject and character.

Originally known as Villa Sirena, the Palazzo Donn’Anna sits just west of the Mergellina harbour and takes its name from Anna Carafa (1604–1644), Duchess of Stigilano and wife of Ramiro Núñez de Guzmán (1600–1668), the Spanish Viceroy of Naples, who inherited the property in 1630. Designed with grand ambitions by the architect Cosimo Fanzago, the palace was intended to be one of the most magnificent residences in Naples, commanding uninterrupted views across the Bay. Construction, however, came to an abrupt halt following the Duchess’s untimely death in 1644. By the eighteenth century its crumbling walls, perched dramatically at the water’s edge, had captivated artists, travellers, and antiquarians alike, turning it into one of the most evocative and romantic landmarks of the Neapolitan coastline.

¹ Inv. no. 0284.S; oil on canvas, 104.2 x 157 cm.; The painting had previously sold at Christie's, New York, on 16 January 1992, lot 129, for $495,000; https://www.comptonverney.org.uk/works/peasants-merry-making-on-the-shore-at-posillipo/

² R. Muzii, in All'ombra del Vesuvio. Napoli nella veduta europea dal Quattrocento all'Ottocento, S. Cassani (ed.), exh. cat., Naples 1990, p. 382.